


drift away with reams of youth

by ashleykay



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/M, Sea-longing, prose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-01-31 03:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21439762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleykay/pseuds/ashleykay
Summary: Conquering her own future, Anne blazes her own path, to old for the asylum and refusing to succumb to the restrictions society holds, she takes command of her own ship, 'Inward Treasure'. And becomes the Bride of Adventure.Or the Pirate!Anne AU that made me listen to hours of sea shanties.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 11
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know. Just Anne and her pirate jokes and the 'i...pirate'. I have no excuse other than I thought it would be a one shot and funny and then I started listening to sea shanties and now there's this so ongoing semi ploted thing. So yeah.
> 
> Also the name of Anne's ship is from Jane Eyre and the title comes from On Your Shore lyrics.

There was something about the sea. The crashing waves. The salt that made her skin sticky and cool. Anne lifted her chin toward the wind and tightened her grip on the wheel. Here she was on her own ship of dreams, she was truly the bride of adventure. The captain of her own future. For a moment she could see her past, the little girl she had been so long ago, dreaming of a family and a home, a steady warm fireplace. Maybe even a little gable room that had blooming flowers and a starry sky to catch hold of those firelit dreams.

But she had grown up in the cold dark asylum. Her dreams had changed, under the watchful eyes of Headmistress Mariah, stern and thin. Now Anne knew how to hold her tongue, to stand tall and unafraid of harshness or cruelty. No, Mariah had seen to it that any weakness was beat out of her. Anne knew she had once been soft, had worn her heart on her sleeve and looked to the sky and the trees and longed for flight and safety and the warm sun. She still at times felt like that small child. Breathless in the face of the open sea, like the wilds in which she came from. Now, Anne made her family at the helm of her ship the ‘Inward Treasure', she filled the ship with others like her. Misfits, the poor and obscure, the ship of the unwanted. Led by the red headed devil herself. She felt herself shift again, no longer taken by the past. Here Anne was devilish and whole when from below she heard a shout. 

“Anne! Anne!” Hugo bound up the steps, his face scrunched and his one good eye narrowed. The other side of his face held a deep jagged scar that was pale against his dark skin. “Floaters!” 

Her breath caught but she pushed through. “How many?” 

“Four but maybe two living.”

“Any sign of hidden ships?” Just in the past month or so there had been word that she had become wanted. She couldn't risk her crew for two dead men and a trap. 

“Polly saw nothing.” 

She could leave them. Those floating bodies meant nothing to her. She had 60 others to think about and to say nothing of whatever diseases they could be carrying.

It would do her no good to invite danger.

“Bring them aboard.” She said instead. 

She remembered being saved herself once. She may be a pirate but it was out of necessity not hatred. There was no place for a women seeking freedom but the sea and her own country she claimed on the waves.

“Take Cole and Jerry. If the floaters seem too sick, toss them, leave the dead.”

  
Hugo nodded but before he turned to leave, he eyed her. “What of the officers?”

  
“If there's no other ship in sight, have no worry of it. If the floaters look like navy, leave them.”

“Aye.” He said as he turned to follow orders.

  
Anne called out to him. “I have trust in you. Do what you think is best and it will be.”

______________________

  
They had pulled the sails and stagnated while the small boats rowed to the bodies. Anne took to her office to think. She plied over the numbers. Calculated the pay and time they'd been drifting. Divided what supplies they had and how soon they could make it to a friendly port. Two more to feed. And they may not be capable of work. And Mills having to shabbily coax them to live and Anne knew how hard she would take it if her nursing failed. Mills needed her wards to live, Anne saw her spirit shutter every time someone slipped away. If only, Anne thought, they could get her some real knowledge. The ship would fare better also. Anne's stomach clinched thinking of how it could go, for a moment while she though alone in the office cabin, she feared she could have made the wrong choice.

  
But it was done. She could not appear to waiver on her decision. She turned her focus back on the numbers. They had enough to sail another couple of months and soon they’d be near enough to a port, one close to Capetown. And those floaters would heal and when they did she put them to work and then let them free when they docked. If they wanted. And if they died. Then the ocean would be there to swallow them back up. 

A knock made her pause. "Yes." She called out.

It was Cole's voice that came back to her. "Anne, they've been brought aboard. There's two of them alive. Both men. Don't look like sailors, but definitely not officers either. Neither one is awake quite yet. Mills has them below. Trying to get them to drink something. They seemed to be breathing fine. But they have red and cracked lips."

Anne nodded. She looked Cole up and down as slyly as she could. He'd only be on ship a year, he was running from something she was sure. Most of her crew was. Women captains didn't fit with the common idea of pirating. So the crew she found herself commanding tended to be kind that were of a different mind. There was something almost kindred in his lanky body. A fear and quietness to him that made her remember who she was once.

"And tell me Cole, what do you make of them?"

He didn't answer for a moment. She could see his eyes shift though, as if he working out the right words.

Finally he settled on, "I think you know what you are doing."

She thinned her lips. "Yes," she said."I do know. But I want to know what you think."

Cole's shoulders squared. "I can't say I am not hesitant. But I think they pose no real threat. As of now, at least. They are weak and could be easily disposed of, I think giving them a chance, can't hurt what with you gaining fame. Although." There Cole broke of and she saw again the hesitation.

"Go on. Let's hear it."

"It could set us up for trouble in the future by the same reasoning."

She rolled her finger at him to motion him to continue.

"If they know we'll rescue. It could be used to trap us."

"Yes. Very true, Cole. I am wondering if we shall have to keep them captive. To not let word out of mercy." Anne kept her gaze on the slender man. "We may have to kill them anyway. I thought to let them off when we next dock. But with the news of the posters." She shook her head. She could not show hesitation of her own but she could make them think she was listening those around her. Let them have a voice.

Cole nodded and the last of his reservation dissolved before her. "It may come to that."

"For now, we'll wait and see. But do not get to close. We cant afford to feel to much for them should the situation change."

"I'll let the others know."

"Yes do. And tell me when they wake. I want to know what type we are dealing with. If they should gain strength we'll need to know what we are dealing with."

"Of course. They look the rich sort. They were wearing once nice suits. Although, one was black."

"Servant, maybe. If true, his '_master_' will learn to serve instead." Her eyes hardened at the thought of anyone giving orders based on something as arbitrary as skin or station. They men and women worked for her. Never to her beck and call but for the sea. She lead them but never controlled her crew with classism. They maintained the ship for their own sakes and for them she pulndered where need be and fought along side them as the helm, to help carry, never to be hoisted above them. On her ship, the crew was as equal as if they were born in gates of heaven itself. It was her own country and no one was rated on sex or skin or anything beyond the ships own moral code. 

"I'll make sure he knows."

Anne nodded her dismissal and turned back to the numbers that lay before her.


	2. Chapter 2

For three days the men below twisted and turned, Mills had been fretting and going through their limited remedy supplies. And Mills had burst into Anne's room thrice so far today. 

  
“Heatstroke. If only we had the belladonna handy. We should make a list for supplies. And some honey if we can swing it.”

  
Anne brushed back her hair and knotted it as well as she could. “Mills, I am all for making a list. But don't run yourself into the grave for a couple of unknowns.”

  
“Oh, Captain Anne, I won't be ready for big swim quite yet. But I can't abide to let them suffer. If only we could cool the water better. Now the taller one is seeming to recover a bit better. I think his fever might break. It's the little one, all though not to little, seems to be taken worse. Awful moaning and such. And the vomiting is just – worrying. He looks to thin. All bones. Might have been a sickly sort before this.”

  
“Well then don't go blaming yourself if he was weak to begin with, all the nursing in world won't help those already on the way out.”

Anne inhaled and thought there might be a storm in the air. “Send Talib to check the stays. I think we may have some rough seas ahead. And keep a head on you, if it gets sticky we may need you to focus on the crew opposed to the foundlings.”

Mills eyes rolled. Smoothing her hands on her breeches Mills sighed. “You know the crew will always be first. But are you going to go have a look at them. The foundlings?”

  
No, thought Anne, she had a terrible habit of getting attached to people upon sight. Most of the crew was formed on her sorry heart bleeding for people most would find useless. Men beaten by deformities or prejudices. Women caught between selling themselves or wrecking their bodies in dangerous factories and drunk men. Swallowed eyed people who were running from something or to a place they could find a home. It would do her no good to feel for these men if they couldn't keep them. 

  
“I suppose I will see them soon enough once you have them well.”

  
Mills nodded but before she left she glanced long at Anne. “We don’t know their type, but I think Captain Anne, you will have a hard time either way.”

___________________________

The storm leaked water below and left the stern sloppy and damp. She'd been up and moving about for too long. The rain was a simple drizzle now, slipping easy into a soft breeze and quiet restful waves. 

  
But still sleep evaded her. 

  
She sighed and pulled on her breeches. She could just take a look below, check out the berth and make sure the day crew was well settled. Make sure Mills was catching a little sleep. 

  
Jerry's hands had been injured in the storm. So she could slip in and see that he was recovering well. The injury might leave him out of the next plan and she knew then he'd be worried about being able to send money back home. It would be best assure him he would still get a fair share. 

  
When she found him was fully covered and staring helplessly at the upper bunk. 

  
“Capitaine Anne.” 

  
“Jerry. How's hands?”

  
He cleared his throat and tried to force his accent to disappear. “Fine. I'll be back to it tomorrow.”

  
Anne shook her head, “You’ll take as long as needed. We'll have you well. And because I know you’d worry, think nothing of the next plan. You'll still be paid. You are an invaluable member, an injury changes nothing.”

  
“Captain-“

  
“Capitaine. There's no use hiding who you are from me. If I had been looking for something different, then I wouldn't have let you a board.”

  
Jerry's smile was real and cracked. “Aye, Capitaine.”

  
She looked to the side and saw the foundlings. The darker one had woke briefly during the worst of the storm. But he had given them no real information. 

  
“Your cabin mates? How is it faring?”

  
“Mostly quiet. The little one, he moans a lot. Sounds painful.”

  
“Would have thought they'd be mending by now.” She glanced again, sweat beaded on both their brows and both were uncovered and wearing thin shirts that were twisted in their legs. 

  
Then the smaller one moaned, his eyes screwed tightly. “Dad-", he choked. 

  
Anne stomach dropped. Without thinking she moved closer. His face was thin. Hungry looking. Full lips that were white and cracked with blood. 

  
“Dad.” He rasped again. 

  
She watched his hands twist on nothingness. Without a thought she took it in her own. “There, foundling. Hold on and you'll get well.” 

  
His damp hand squeezed, “Dad. Dad. Please. Dad. I'm afraid.” His eyes remained closed and his voice cracked. She felt her heart stutter at the pleas. She understood them, no she had no mother or father's face to call to but during the worst of things, she pleaded to those imagined people. Begging for a reprieve.

  
“Mills has their water on the stool.” Jerry called to her.

  
“Aye.” She dipped her free hand to the bucket and pulled the rag. She ran it carefully across his face, letting it rest at his lips. “There.” She whispered to him. She cupped her hand and pulled water from the bucket to his mouth. “Drink.” She brushed the dark curls from his eyes. “Be well, foundling.”

  
She cast a glance at the other man. His face was calm, so she knew there was hope for at least one of them. “We’ll see you and your man well. Just follow his steps.”

  
Then the man's hand twisted in hers. She glanced at his face as his eyes fluttered unseeing but open. “Mother? Am I home at last?” The man before her whispered it, but to Anne it seemed echoing and loud. His eyelids batted and again he was gone. But this time quiet with nothing more than a heavy breath. 

  
“He seems to be failing.” 

  
Glancing at Jerry, Anne took hold of herself. "Yes, maybe so, but best to give him the comfort before it ends. Lying isn't the worst I've done.”

  
She set the foundlings hand down and bade Jerry a good rest.

  
She thought of those days long ago, of the asylum and what came after. As she made her way back to her quarters, she tried to push the nameless men from her mind. 

  
She felt so tired. Empty. 

  
She thought of Mills words. She was always going about things the hard way. She let her mind wander and without thought she heard a little prayer spring in quietness of her mind. She hoped the foundlings lived. 

  
She wondered, as her eyes finally closed, if God heard the prayers of pirates at all. 


End file.
